The breastfeeding shaming we never expected.
“Dear Breastfeeding Moms… I mean seriously. Is it really that hard to cover up?”
So opens this post over on Pop Sugar.
The writer, Janie Porter, is a mother herself. She’s breastfed her children in public, in airports, at restaurants, at church. She describes always covering herself up. She even acknowledges that putting a blanket over a feeding six-month-old is pretty well impossible.
But still she says, “here’s the deal: strangers don’t want to see your areola”.
Porter continues later in the post, “let’s stop pretending that you’re fighting a stigma that doesn’t exist in 2015".
The delicious irony of this statement, that Porter herself is spreading the stigma that she says doesn't exist, entirely escapes her notice.
I can’t quite believe what I’m reading. This is the attitude I expect from a silly old bloke living in a 1960’s throwback world. Not the attitude of a breastfeeding mother of the 21st century.
I can’t quite believe that Porter compares the peek of breast you might see while feeding a baby by saying, “your vagina helped make the kid, and I don’t see you flashin’ that around".
Everyone knows that breastfeeding mums are just out to ruin your day with tits. Post continues after video...
I can’t quite believe that, yet again, I am writing about the shame women are exposed to when they feed their hungry children.
Women are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Damned if they breastfeed their children in public. Told to cover up. Booted from restaurants and stores. Reduced to feeding their children in public toilets.
Damned if they bottlefeed their children. As if somehow neglectful of their child. Told that the bond they create with their children is somehow lessened. Reduced to hiding bottles and formula away.
When it comes to feeding their children, mothers have one job and one job only.
Feed the hungry baby.
However you need to. However you want to. If you want to bottle feed, there’s no shame in it. If you want to breastfeed, that’s wonderful.
The only shame that should be felt is by people who continue to police the bodies of mothers, who attempt to control the choices made by women.
Do you think breastfeeding mothers should cover themselves up? Or do you agree that it's an outdated attitude?
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